


Without Him

by autumnstwilight (sewohayami)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: All hurt no comfort, Angst, Bad Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode Ignis DLC, Episode Ignis Verse 2, M/M, One Shot, You Decide, can be romantic or platonic or one-sided
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 04:50:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15942128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sewohayami/pseuds/autumnstwilight
Summary: Noctis catches up with Ignis and Ardyn just a little too late. (Episode Ignis Bad Ending aftermath).





	Without Him

**Author's Note:**

> For the FFXV Kinkmeme prompt: "How about Noct, Prompto, and Gladio finding Ignis' body from the bad ending of verse 2? They don't get to him in time and Ardyn is still fine since Ignis couldn't defeat him in the time allotted."

The metal catwalk reverberated with their footsteps, and the echoes resounded in the great empty spaces of Zegnautus Keep. Noctis’ lungs were burning and he felt as though someone were stabbing a knife into his bad knee with every step, but he stumbled on, aware that time was against them.

Voices carried too, distorted and metallic.

“... all but laid the Crystal out on a silver platter for him, but he still wouldn’t come of his own accord…”

Rage seized him, turning his insides cold. It was Ardyn that spoke, he was sure of it. And the other voice, the one that was crying out in pain between heaving breaths…

_ Ignis. _

“With the Crystal and the Ring, the boy has everything he needs right here...”

Ardyn continued to speak, in tones of cool satisfaction. There was no reply from Ignis. Noctis’ breath caught in his chest, before he knew it, he had thrown his blade, warping to the end of the steel bridge, catching himself with one hand on the ground and rounding the corner, continuing to run. Behind him, Prompto and Gladio were racing to keep up.

“All that’s left is to give him a little nudge, and your tragic end should push him over the edge…”

Ahead, down yet another sprawling walkway, there was a doorway that seemed to open into a wider space. That was where the voices were coming from. He felt it there too, the ripple of power like a weight pulling on reality, needling under his skin like something electric, calling to him, the Crystal. He warped again, blade sinking into the flooring of the catwalk, screeching metal on metal as he wrenched it out with a shout of effort, charging on. The opening was ahead. He was almost there, when he heard Ignis speak.

“I don’t want to die without him…”

With a cry, he threw his sword again, landing awkwardly. He was so out of breath that his fingertips were tingling with numbness and his vision was beginning to blur at the edges from lack of oxygen. Leaning on his sword, he pushed himself to his feet, and stumbled into the room where the Crystal waited.

“Ah, there you are.” Ardyn’s voice dripped with the false charm that had always infuriated Noctis. Now he knew that there was nothing behind it but cold venom.

“I’m afraid that once again, you’re just a little too late.” He swept an arm across the room in an ostentatious gesture, but Noctis’ eyes were looking beyond him, to the figure on the ground.

“Ignis!”

His advisor lay prone, silent and far too still. Noctis ran to his side, his mind vaguely registering the footsteps of Gladio and Prompto as they reached the entrance.

“Noct! Ignis!”

“Iggy!”

The body lying before him was painted with silver ichor, flowing from split and cracked skin that glowed from within like embers. Noctis had never seen anything like this, the silver felt hot, heavy and wet, like blood and ash on his fingers as he heaved Ignis into his arms.

“Ignis, I’m here. I’m here now. You’re gonna be okay… Just… wake up. Ignis,  _ please… _ ”

The tears were already burning their way down his cheeks, a sign of what he knew but could not accept. Still clutching his fallen friend, he turned his gaze to Ardyn, spitting fury.

“What the hell did you do to him!? You’re going to take this back, or I swear... I swear by the gods… I’ll…”

“What did  _ I _ do? My dear boy, this is nothing that he didn’t do to himself.”

“Like hell it is! First Luna, now Ignis! I’ll  _ kill _ you! I’ll take you to pieces! There isn’t gonna be  _ shit _ left when I’m done with you!” The light of the Armiger began to shimmer and spin around him.

Ardyn made a gesture with his hand, and Noctis gasped, the Armiger shattering and fading from his broken concentration. In response to Ardyn, a small light had gleamed on the back of Ignis’s hand. The Ring of the Lucii. Noctis stared in horror.

“No… that… that’s…  _ Why!? _ ”

He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand any of this. Something in the back of his mind was still screaming fury, telling him that this feeling could only be assuaged by sinking every single one of the Royal Arms into Ardyn’s flesh, and yet over that was numb confusion. This couldn’t be real. None of it made sense. This couldn’t be happening.

He clutched Ignis’ hand to his chest, the cold metal of the ring biting into his fingers as he did so. He was sobbing now, and gods, how he didn’t want to sob in front of  _ Ardyn _ of all people, but this was  _ Ignis, _ scarred and limp in his arms, his life seemingly taken by the power that Noct himself was expected to wield, the magic of the Lucii.

“Your dear advisor saw fit to try and change your fate. Perhaps he doubted that you truly have what it takes to be the Chosen King. Would you like to prove him wrong?”

Noctis crumpled as if he’d been punched, curling himself tighter around Ignis.

“It’s not true…  _ shut up _ … it’s not true…”

“Well, goodness, how should I know what he was thinking then? What a shame that you’ll never be able to ask him.”

Noctis did scream then. He was on his feet, the royal arms circling him, blinding white, pulsing with the racing of his heartbeat. Ardyn’s cold smirk didn’t slip for a moment, and behind him unfurled an armiger of glowing red, hanging from his shoulders like bloodied, broken wings. They folded around him, giving off a deafening clash as Noctis’ blades bounced off uselessly.

“Noct!”

He heard the shout from Prompto as a gunshot rang out, saw Gladio swing his greatsword with a roar of,  _ "You son of a bitch!" _ Neither got past the whirling blades that surrounded Ardyn. A dark energy seemed to build, and they fell to the ground.

“This fight is between you and I. Be good, and I’ll let them live.”

Noctis’ response was another hail of blades, with sheer force as his strategy. Everything he had fought before had wilted under the power of the Armiger. Yet the way Ardyn dueled was almost delicate, deflecting every weapon with the slightest and most precise of movements, as careless as a shrug. As though he had been doing this for a  _ very _ long time.

_ Ignis, is this what you were fighting? Is this why you used the Ring? _

His strength was already beginning to wane, blades growing more translucent. He’d miscalculated, badly. A thrust from the Trident of the Oracle slipped between the blades but went wide, catching nothing but the edge of Ardyn’s scarf. Even fighting with caution, he was outmatched, and knew it. And then, the weapons vanished, and he fell to the ground. There was a laugh from Ardyn.

“Come now, you know what you must do. Have you not been told all your life?”

On his hands and knees, he made his way to Ignis, taking his old friend’s hand in his.

_ “I don’t want to die without him.” _

And yet, he had. Noctis had let this happen. Ignis had come here, alone, with the Ring, to fight Ardyn. To change fate itself.

For him. 

All for him.

It had all gone so wrong.

“There’s a good boy,” crowed Ardyn, watching him fumble with Ignis’ cold fingers to remove the ring. “Your destiny awaits you.”

He squeezed Ignis’ hand, full of so much that he couldn’t say.

“Take up the mantle of your father, and those before him.”

His hands trembled as he lifted the ring. Its power pulled at him, a thrumming under the skin and an ache in every bone, as though it were already tearing him apart. He took a deep breath, and forced it on to his finger.

When he turned, Ardyn was behind him, seizing him by the hair and dragging him to his feet.

“Time’s up, Noctis. You have kept me waiting for so very long.”

With a grip like iron, Ardyn slammed him into the Crystal. Noctis gasped from the pain that rang through his skull, and all was consumed by light.

**Author's Note:**

> Ouch.


End file.
